About Al
Greetings. My name is Al and this is my humble web blog.
In the spirit of blogging, I'll try to update this site regularly with observations, thoughts on business, and technology, globalization, and so on, as I come across interesting observations from here in the Silicon Valley and my travels to Japan and elsewhere.
I'm currently the director of product management for a voice and web applications startup company in the Silicon Valley called JobFlash. We create a super efficient recruiting and hiring process for retail, hotel, casino, restaurant and hospitality businesses and their job candidates by using the ordinary telephone.
Background:
I've been developing software since about 1980 when Santa brought me a TRS Color Computer. I guess the power to manipulate a machine and a screen with a story I could type myself struck a chord within me. Programming came naturally to me. I continued on to study engineering in college and grad school where, thanks to the proliferation of the personal computer, engineering education involved plenty of software writing to solve homework problems on a scale never enjoyed by generations of engineering students before me. My college even had a PC kit program, where we'd build our own PC a month before starting class.
During college, I had a number of terrific summer internships at places like AT&T Bell Labs, IBM, GE Aircraft Engines, and Allied Signal Aerospace. When I finished grad school, I took my passion for building and integrating software and mechanical components to Ford Motor Company. At Ford, I spent my first few weeks tearing apart engines and transmissions and putting them back together again. Dream job. I was in a program that rotated me around to through various areas from engineering to marketing. I then became an expert in engine software and controls. I traveled throughout the US and Europe, developing vehicles in every climate and road condition. Ford then sent me to Japan, where I worked for Mazda on various powertrains designed for vehicles bound for the US. Millions of vehicles are on the road throughout the world today running software and engines I helped to design and build.
The power and scope of the internet changed my life while I was living in Japan from 1997 to 2000. As a weekend hobby, I started a web and PDA based resource called Japan In Your Palm.com. With a mission to bridge the language barrier, I built a significant user base and awareness of my service throughout the world. The popularity of Japan In Your Palm lead to a mention in Time magazine, and I was even quoted in the New York Times Circuit's section back in 2000 where I said "Living overseas brings a unique appreciation for the power of the Internet...".
I-mode internet on the mobile phone - was born while I was in Japan. I still consider what NTT Docomo did in creating i-mode to be an amazing human triumph (i.e. bringing the internet and html to any cell phone) and it had a the effect of overloading my imagination with things possibe and my eventual return to the Silicon Valley to try to make some of those idea happen. I believe I was one of the first foreigners in Japan to create an i-mode web site.
Although I enjoyed my career at the larger companies like Ford and IBM, I've found that my strengths and passion are perfectly suited for a startup work environment. It's a thrill to create a product from nothing and to create a new market that didn't exist before you did something about it. At JobFlash, we integrate a great idea, a passion to help our customers, the telephone, the internet, Java and VoiceXML technology in a unique and powerful way that generates great value for our users.
This web log is published and managed by Userland's Radio Weblogging software. I enjoy dabbling with blogging and some of its related technologies, like RSS. Some of the blogs I read regularly are listed in the left bar of this page.
Alrighty then. See you around. Ja ne.
Al
p.s. in case your wondering what that logo is in the top left corner of my blog homepage, it's a link to my JapanInYourPalm site's page on Michan's Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima. The letters say Mi-cha-n. One of my favorite "cuisines" from Japan. A specialty in Hiroshima, where I lived for a couple of years.
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© Copyright
2004
Al Nevarez.
Last update:
10/9/2004; 11:26:43 PM. |
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